In the latest of releases under the Overclocked Remix name, Seven Songs for Seventh Saga can now be added to the list. Arranged entire by cellist Sebastian “AeroZ” Freij, the album pays tribute to the 1993 Enix game, The 7th Saga whose music was originally composed by Norihiko Yamanuki.

What makes this arrangement album a bit unique, other than being strictly arranged by cello, is that it includes sheet music and performance videos along with the arranged music tracks, proving to be as instructive as it is immersive.

“Like many VGM fans, I’m very fond of music from RPG’s like Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Lufia and the list goes on… but for making a project as this, I wanted to choose something that hasn’t been covered as much,” Freij explained. “As far as I know, 7th Saga is the only game [Norihiko Yamanuki]‘s written music for. The question pops up in my head from time to time: Why did he stop? I think many of the tracks have a classical touch and very interesting harmonies.”

- OC Remix Press Release

The six-track album in its entirety, along with the aforementioned accompanying educational materials, are free for download on the album’s webpage. You can check out more OCR projects on their website.

The good folks at Joypad Records continue to attract new and interesting talent for new VGM arrangements. Surely by now y’all have heard the glory of Smooth McGroove, right?

I wanted to take a moment to highlight some new releases that I’ve been very much enjoying. First up (and pictured above) is the debut album from Videri String Quartet, entitled “Portals.” I haven’t heard a good string quartet album in awhile, so I was excited to check this one out. It features a collection of generally well-known tunes, including full medleys for a handful of popular games including The Legend of Zelda, Halo and Final Fantasy VII. It’s available on Loudr for 12.00 USD. Full disclosure: I first found out about this album from a press release written by none other than OSV’s illustrious Jayson Napolitano.

Another great little album worth checking out is the first in a series of albums from a collective calling themselves “Project Destati.” For those of you who somehow forgot, “Destati” is the name of one of the best up-tempo, intense battle themes from Yoko Shimomura’s Kingdom Hearts compositions. Project Destati intends to release a lot of music … for now, they have a 5-track, 18-minute EP out called “Awakening.” It’s available on Loudr for 3.00 USD. I learned about this one via an RPGFan news story.

There are other new albums worth checking out as well: I’ll put in my own recommendation for DJ Cutman and Spamtron’s “MeowMeow & BowWow” — which serves as an EDM-style tribute to the Game Boy classic Link’s Awakening.

We didn’t announce nominees for this category, but we decided that in simplifying our categories, we might have simplified too much. We skipped over a category that’s very important to us: fan arrange / doujin.

So, after the jump, we’ll tell you what our three favorite fan arrange albums of 2012 were. (more…)

When it comes to Touhou Project, there seems to be an endless stream of music coming out on the doujin music scene every year. A cursory look inside stores specializing in doujin products in Akihabara reveal large swaths of retail space dedicated to all types of Touhou Project music. Monthly sales ranking from shops such as Toranoana also reflect the dominance of Touhou Project although Vocaloid-related music appears from time to time to shake up things up. Nevertheless, it becomes a bit of a workout to sort through the horde of music out there, especially for the uninitiated.

Enter Arte Refact’sGensouYuugikan -Fantastic Casino-. Released originally during Reitaisai 10, the annual doujin event dedicated to Touhou Project, the 10 track album featuring a veritable who’s who of major doujin music groups with Touhou Project being there common link. This concept album’s theme centers around the idea of what it would be like if Gensokyo, the place central to the Touhou Project series, had a game center in it. Alongside this theme is the character, Marisa Kirisame’s adventures through said game center. The anachronistic theme aside, I had rather high expectations for this album given the star power driving it. As mentioned before, with such a wide variety of arranges, remixes and so forth out on the market, it can be difficult finding a gem in an endless sea of music.

Did Arte Refact nail it on their release? Or perhaps this is simply the case of more of the same? Hit the jump and find out! (more…)

[above: proof that I have no business messing around in Photoshop ... or, in my case, GIMP]

UPDATE: You are free to submit more than one idea, so long as you don’t spam us with posts. To make it simple, let’s set a limit to three song ideas per person. Honor system applies, don’t create dummy email accounts or use proxy/tunnel to mask your IP address!

Yesterday, in our review of The OneUps’ latest album Intergalactic Continuum, we noted the extremely witty and clever track titles for the songs on the album. Now it’s time for you to make up your own title!

Here’s all you have to do: leave a comment on this article that includes a song, or a medley of songs from a game/franchise that you would love to have arranged by The OneUps. Then, give that dream arrangement a clever title. The funkiest (or funniest) entry will win a new, sealed copy of Intergalactic Continuum, courtesy of Mustin Enterprises and OSV. Free shipping within North America, but if you live anywhere else, we may have to ask you to Paypal 5 USD to OSV to cover international shipping. But we’re not limiting the contest to US/Canada residents, so anyone and everyone, feel free to submit your entry! We’ll close entries at noon EST on Thursday, Sept 13 and announce the winner the next day.

And hey, if we’re lucky, maybe The OneUps will use the entries as a source of inspiration. Who knows what we’ll hear at MAGFest 11?!

Last year, The OneUps took on a new style and new image. They were officially a funk band, and they made sure everyone knew and understood what they were all about by launching the band into outer space with the album Intergalactic Redux.

In January, we got a glimpse of what their new album would include with their MAGFest set (the evening one, not the afternoon one). Now, nine months later, The OneUps are giving birthday to their full-length follow-up, entitled Intergalactic Continuum.

After the jump, we give you our review of the album. And check back tomorrow for a chance to win this album before it’s even available for purchase! (more…)

Over 150 game, anime, and related albums were released this past August at Comiket 82. That’s a lot of music: I’ll never hear 95% of it.

But I sit up and pay attention to the second album in a new original works / demo series from Pinokiti Records, “Fruited Vagabond.” Featuring music from some of Namco’s best in-house composers, as well as some new faces that generally only work in the doujin scene, these albums feature some really enjoyable dance/electronic music.

After the jump, we have the Soundcloud demo reel for the album, as well as my impressions of all five tracks. (more…)

Every six months, Comiket sweeps Japan, and a boatload of doujin music albums are released (alongside some legitimate game and anime soundtracks, as well).

Generally, it’s just too much for one person to take in. You could easily spend $1000 there and still miss something cool. Especially if you’re down with all things Touhou-related.

Recently, one of our friends at SEMO (Don Kotowski) pointed us in the direction of “Fruited Vagabond.” It’s essentially a demo reel of music made in FL Studio, one track per composer, and the composers being some of Namco’s greatest assets (AJURIKA, Ryo Watanabe, Hiroshi Okubo, etc).

Tomorrow, we’ll have a review of the album newly released “Fruited Vagabond Vol.2″ from Comiket 82. But before that, we have a review of the first album, which is four tracks and runs 24 minutes. After the jump, our review (alongside some soundcloud samples, hurray!). (more…)

One of the nominated albums for best fan arrange / doujin of 2011, “Harmony of a Hunter” (celebrating the Metroid series), is about to get a serious upgrade.

Last year’s album had 36 tracks, covering most themes from most of the Metroid games. In November 2012, the companion album “Harmony of a Hunter: 101% Run” is going to cover all of the music they *didn’t* get to cover in the previous album. That’s right: it’s going to be even bigger than the previous album, and though some source tunes will be covered a second time, there will be no recycled arrangements or tracks from the old album.

Above is one of three preview demo-reels currently available on the Shinsparkers website. Lots of great names appearing in the credits list, including one of my personal favorites: Mazedude (who also worked on the first HoaH album).

When the album drops, know that it will be totally free, so there will be no reason not to check it out. We’ll have more on the album as we get closer to the November release. Until then, be sure to follow the Facebook Harmony of a Hunter page to stay up-to-date on the latest news and preview tracks.

It’s been a whirlwind of releases this week, and it looks like Grant “Stemage” Henry wanted to tack on his contribution to the week with his most recent release of Where Good Marbles Go To Die, an arrangement album for the game Marble Madness. The head man of the band Metroid Metal has been keeping himself pretty busy creating the collection and releasing it between his several other projects.

The 7-track release features not only Henry, but several other artists lending their talents as guests to each individual tracks. Including the accompanied expertise of the likes of Lauren Liebowitz of Descendants of Erdrick, fellow Metroid Metal bandmate Micheal “Kirby Pufocia” Molnar, Erik “VikingGuitar” Peabody and several talented others, the release has a fantastic mix of different types of melodies and genres contributing to its overall collective sound. Sporting the arranged music from all the levels of the original arcade release, and boasting wonderful art by Nate “FoxxDragon” Horsfall, there’s something for everyone to enjoy!

Where Good Marbles Go To Die is an exciting collaboration between talents and brought together on an arrangement album for a game that deserves its time in the spotlight. Available on Stemage’s bandcamp for the always reasonable “Name-Your-Price” to download the entire album, there’s also the option to donate $5 (plus shipping) in order to gain the overly-retro reward of a cassette tape of the album! How can you lose with that?!